1. Those are SO easy, SO exhilarating, and can be landed SO smoothly. You're describing swapping off forward speed for altitude, perceived or real, and the key is so simple you will do it right on your first try, once airborne.
Next time you think you got your fin out of the water, whether it's a knee-high chop hop or a real jump, look up. That's all there is to it. Stay hooked in, look straight up, and your board nose will head straight for the sky directly overhead, with your sail more or less horizontal. It doesn't even take any skill, unlike those big horizontal jumps dependent on aerial board- and sail-handling skills. This little trick makes a two-foot jump (fin clearance) feel and look MUCH higher. You almost can't go wrong, because if the fin IS out of the water it works, and if it's NOT out of the water nothing happens.

That takes care of your first objective: getting your board vertical on a little chop hop. The other half of this non-challenging jump is landing. You have two choices: land flat on your back (painful from 5 feet w/o armor, fun with armor even from 20 feet), or choose instead to set the board down like a feather, silently, softly ... and planing. You do the former when you freeze looking straight up, the latter when, at the peak of your leap or hop, you look at your landing spot ... all assuming you're hooked in. This is a classic case of your board following your stare. Do nothing conscious with your rig; just jump hooked in, hold the rig steady, look up, look down, and amaze yourself with your newfound skill. The guy right next to you won't even hear you land.

Mike \OO/

Never would have thought of that one Ill definitely try that next time. It reminds me of motorcycling where you can drive down the highway and without any voluntary movement of your arms you can think where you want to go and the bike just does it..I may have to just leave the heavy board on shore next time and go out on the Quatro and hang on.

On a slightly unrelated note. (Sorry if this comes off as anal and annoying) Your bottom two battens look loose based on those wrinkles in your sail. And, your harness lines are spread way to far apart for wave gear.

The sail is a Northwave loaner while my sail is eing repaired from my day on the coast,so I didnt mess with it. As far as the harness lines.. I havent quite gotten those sorted out yet since Ive only been in the straps for 2 weeks, Im still trying to zero in on where to center them and how long to make them, they are getting closer though so I will push them closer together and see how it feels

As said, be the fastest on the water, sail at Hatch or Dougs, point upwind slightly to get a better angle on the swells, look for the steepest swells.
DaleCook is currently the highest jumper. He's also the fastest sailor out there in those conditions.
In the past, few could match BrucePeterson and MikeKitts.
But you need to hit the Hatch, Swell, Dougs, or deep water spots out east for bigger, steeper ramps.

If you want to focus on technique, here is something to get started.
http://www.boardseekermag.com/technique/jem-hall-chop-hop-095.html
There are good videos out there that are much more thorough. "Winner to Wavesailor" is good. It covers jumping technique and has great footage of moves you can dream about doing in the future. It will help you with your technique and rigging to sail faster too.

Stay hooked in, look straight up, and your board nose will head straight for the sky directly overhead, with your sail more or less horizontal. It doesn't even take any skill, ...

I'd very strongly recommend that you unhook if you are trying to get some serious air. Staying hooked in for a small chop hop is fine, pretty much the norm. For anything bigger, staying hooked in can be a complete disaster for a rookie trying his first jumps. Differing advice... take your pick.

I don't recall whether I began jumping hooked or unhooked, but since spinouts were a bigger problem than endos, I suspect I was hooked in. Maybe my many years of flying dirt bikes and snowmobiles left me jaded about it. I find that jumping unhooked takes far more skill and effort, so I seldom bother and just don't know whether it's preferable for new jumpers. What I AM sure it does is do exactly what Chaco asked about: turning chop hops into what feels like bigger nose-high jumps.

And the first time one tries it on a big jump feels amazing. The first time I tried it literally put me looking at the shoreline I was leaving, inverted, high enough that my inverted mast cleared the water. It was then that I realized John DeRosa hadn't told me how to un-rotate and land it, so I was glad to have "what seemed like 2 or 3 minutes" to consider several options, then choose trying to look down under my forward shoulder at my landing spot.

Cush.

You make me want to get back into a jumping mindset. I had all but abandoned it when I began slashing swell instead of jumping it, back when sail design changes diminished hang time around Y2K.

I know this doesn't respond to the jumping question, but your first water start after you fell in the water you had both feet basically in the foot straps. Applying so much pressure to one side of the board makes it very hard to get the board back on a plane. This is even more true in the light wind area you fell and even more true with that heavy glass board you are sailing which doesn't seem to have much volume. If the conditions are over 30mph and you can barely get on the board before it rockets away, by all means cheat with one foot close to a strap. Otherwise, your bodyweight needs to be much more over the center of the board to prevent a lot of falling back in the water which is tiring and gets you cold much more quickly.

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